A mobile network facilities data communications between devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, wireless tags and/or the like, through various technologies including open networking standards or proprietary networking protocols. Example mobile networks may include sensing systems that provide measurement and/or control capabilities. The mobile network devices may be standalone or attached to moving entities. As an example, autonomous vehicles/robots may utilize the mobile network devices for wide-area surveillance and reconnaissance. Various other applications, such as scientific discovery, asset management, and smart environments, rely on the efficiency and utility of the mobile network devices, especially with respect to device mobility.
Some of these mobile networks incorporate wirelessly connected devices into target environments. As mobile devices are added or removed from such an environment, each devices desires to discover other devices (e.g., neighboring devices) and maintain group membership in response to node departures. Group discovery and maintenance are not unique to mobile networks, but employ complicated and/or time/energy consuming protocols. For example, group discovery/formation and maintenance are typically performed in two separate protocols: a neighbor discovery protocol where each device builds a neighborhood membership table and a group maintenance protocol for propagating and aggregating neighborhood membership tables into a group table.